We all know the big ones, we should exercise, get enough sleep and work more and we all feel horribly guilty about not doing them. The thing is, we still don’t do them. So really all we’re doing by reading about them is adding to our guilt.
This article won’t be like that. Here we’re only going to talk about things that are easy enough to do and have seriously big benefits! That way you can do something to improve your life and feel good about yourself at the same time.
What’s not to love?
Visualize
Visualizing is an easy habit to pick up. If you’re going to do something difficult, like a put at golf, or a skateboard jump, take the time to imagine every aspect of it before hand. Studies have shown that this can significantly improve your chance of making that put or that jump.
It isn’t just in sports either that it can help, with it helping to fight off procrastination as well. This is because procrastination is often about overvaluing the present and undervaluing the future. By visualizing future events you can undermine this tendency make the present more equal to the future, which will make it far more likely that you’ll get on with the task at hand. So spend some time focusing on success principles and you’ll be well on your way!
Eat breakfast
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Did you know that people that eat breakfast are on average slimmer than those that don’t? You know why? It’s pretty straightforward – when you don’t eat breakfast you’re extending the fast from the night before into your day. That in itself is already bad for you. You’re starving yourself. What’s more, it means that your sugar level go even lower than they are and that, in turn, makes it far more likely that you’ll eat food that isn’t all that healthy for you.
Eating breakfast already has significant short term benefits in that it boosts your productivity by u to 20%, according to the WHO. That’s pretty incredible. In the long run it helps as well, with people who eat breakfast being less likely to be overweight, have high blood pressure or have bad fats accumulated in their bodies.
What’s more, not eating breakfast puts you at risk of heart disease. They did a study where they followed 27,000 men who did or didn’t eat breakfast and found out that the latter group has a 27% higher likelihood of heart attacks or die as a result of coronary disease.
So how do you eat breakfast if you don’t feel hungry? Start small. Just start with an apple a day. This will start getting your body used to the idea that you’re from now on going to be eating food in the morning. From there you build up. And before you know it you’re eating breakfast!
Be Grateful
This little trick is a fantastic way to boost your happiness and it isn’t that hard to do either. All you need to do is occasionally sit down and write about what you’re grateful for. This can be really concrete ‘I’m grateful for the weather,’ to being grateful about something bigger, like mom, the Red Socks, or how safe your neighborhood is.
Struggling to find some way to express your gratitude? Just imagine what your life would be like without that thing. Really take some time to imagine it. Then when you come out of that nightmare, you’ll suddenly find it much easier to appreciate this thing for what it is.
The simple act of realigning what we’re focused on can greatly boost how we stand in life. And it only takes twenty minutes two or three times a week! Who wouldn’t like to spend 60 minutes a week to be markedly happier?
Be more creative
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Creativity permeates our lives and it is therefore a great attribute to cultivate. But how do you do that? It’s not actually that hard. All you’ve got to do is take the time to do something different. Then rinse and repeat. Don’t take the same route to work, don’t read the same kind of articles, don’t eat at the same restaurants, and don’t always speak with the same people.
Explore your surroundings. Enjoy different things that you normally wouldn’t try. Express yourself, even if initially you do so badly. Keep doing this long enough and you will find that your frame of mind will shift. You’ll absorb this way of looking at the world and will start looking at ideas in this manner as well.
Singletask
We’ve got this idea that we’re good multitaskers. We’re not. Ninety-eight percent of us, in fact, are shockingly bad at it with our productivity dropping drastically if we try to do more than one thing at a time. And it’s even bad for our brains!
So don’t do it. Instead, learn to focus on one task and don’t let other tasks distract you. A great way to do this is to put away your social media while you’re working. Turn off your phones, don’t open your twitter feed and turn off any noises or sounds that machines might make to try and get your attention.
Then, when you’ve worked enough, you can reward yourself with some time doing these kinds of activities. This way you’ll be far more productive and, what is more, will suddenly have an incentive to finish your work faster (making you yet more productive)!
Go Minimal
We don’t actually need all this stuff. We all know it.
So learn to go minimal. I did it by simply moving house. I got rid of everything I didn’t need (I didn’t throw it all away, I put a lot in storage). And if things ever start accumulating again, I’ll move again! This way I get to see beautiful new spaces – which boosts my creativity – and it gives me far more time in my day, as I don’t have to do half as much cleaning!
Be proactive
RyanMcGuire / Pixabay
This isn’t actually a habit. It’s more a lifestyle choice. Don’t wait for life to come to you but instead take life and dance it around the room. You’ll have so much more fun if you feel like you’re in control. These easy to do habits are a great place to start. After all, we all need to start somewhere and it’s better to start with something that you can succeed at.
Once you’ve got the taste for it, however, don’t stop. Keep going! Make change and self-improvement a habit for life is never better than when you can look back at yourself and say, ‘I’m better now than I ever was.’
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